Workshop and Audition

Brightfurnace are looking to collaborate with five innovative and confident dance practitioners from diverse backgrounds on their current performance project The Traipse. So whether you're a contemporary dancer or a traditional dance artist we'd like to hear from you. There will be a workshop / audition on Friday 16th September starting at 9.30 am until 4.30 pm at the Yorkshire Dance Centre in Leeds. Along with your usual dance... kit, you will also need to bring a pair of hard soled shoes as we'll be exploring traditional step/sword dance within the workshop (swords provided). You don't need to be a folk enthusiast or know anything about traditional dance. what will be more important is how you approach, interpret and improvise around the traditional forms.

Ideally you will have a minimum of three years post training performance experience and a willingness to challenge your creative practice. The Traipse explores the interface between traditional English rapper sword dance and contemporary dance performance which will result in a fresh and twisted take on living tradition, culture and heritage.

Successful candidates will collaborate with us on an initial two week research and development period from the 28th Nov to the 9th Dec 2011. This will be paid at the Equity minimum rate of £350 p/w.

Photo Credit: Andy Wood.

To register your interest please contact harry@brightfurnace.co.uk with a brief biog, work history and experience illustrating your interests and why you would like to be involved in this project.

Update

We're having a great response to our Shout Outs for dancers which means on the day of the workshop / audition there'll be lots of participants from Contemporary, circus, folk, physical theatre, comedy and cabaret backgrounds all bringing their expertise with them as well as their eagerness to learn!

I'm delighted that Tom Richardson from Black Swan Rapper http://www.blackswanrapper.co.uk/ will be joining us, as will Stewart Gibb-Lodge from The Cleaver Sisters http://www.myspace.com/thecleaversisters which will ensure a dynamic, innovative and ever so slightly bonkers time together in the studio (bring it on)!

It's Friday and finally the day of the workshop audition

Meeting Rob Business Director for brightfurnace at Sheffield train station at an ungodly hour, we had plenty of time to spare before needing to be at the Yorkshire Dance Centre. The foyer of the Northern Ballet Theatre building came in real handy to sit a while and refine the plans for the day ahead.

A Huge special thanks to Rob Brown, Beth Cassani, Tom Richardson, Andy Wood and Stewart Gibb-Lodge alias Precious Cleaver of the Cleaver Sisters for all their support, expertise and commitment to ensure the day ahead ran smoothly and was a brilliant experience for everyone else involved!

I personally got such a lot out of the day with many new insights and affirmations around the direction the work has been taking since it's inception around eight months ago! The Big release for me was to finally be in the studio with a group of 20 amazing individuals / performers who brought to life what I've only been able to see up till now, in my minds eye!

Beth got them all warmed up to help the dancers prepare mentally and physically for the day ahead, incorporating into the class some tightly grouped and speedy movement sequences. This served as a kind of pre cursor to the traditional close knitted forms of the rapper dance that would follow. Tom from Black Swan Rapper then taught a series of figures / sequences from the 'BS' repertoir that have lovely names like coach and horses, single guard, egg whisk and the lock. The methods of learning rapper can be tricky as they seem to favor a left brained approach which "is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole" Sperry R W. Ouch my brain hurts just thinking of it and believe you me, my own experience of picking up rapper dancing was . . . . . . . H Hm not so quick! The dancers did amazingly well and Tom was able to build more complexity into his approach knowing they would be able to handle it! A recording of Matt Crum, who is undoubtedly one of Englands finest Melodeon players was used to accompany and complete the rapper experience. Matt plays ( and is an aspiring dancer) for Black swan rapper and whom has won several awards consecutively at the Dancing England Rapper Tournament for being the best musician! Thrales Rapper will host 2012's 'DERT' in London which should be a Blast and one that brightfurnace are hoping to be a part of.

After lunch the dancers recapped on what they'd learned earlier, whilst I dashed around Leeds markets in search of several St Georges Flags to be used as props during the photo shoot with Andy and Stew, at the end of the day. Tom rotated the teams around and each team created a new sequence to end their dance with. I was amazed at how after some knuckle crunching (a common hazard of rapper) and maneuvering the teams were emerging and looking every bit like budding rapper pro's!

We then transitioned into exploring the calling on song aspect of the tradition. Stewart and precious found their way into the songs the dancers had written about themselves, the places they're from, the things they do and what kinds of things concern them? Something magical happened as individuals were called into the space to form the group, stories were told that kept us all entertained and
and transfixed! These unfolding archetypal contemporary
folk dramas and playful interpretations of tradition had a certain power and presence in the room. The dancers established their territory, it seemed like they could then own the space they were in, as the scene was set for the dance to commence! T'was wonderful to watch the dancers learn so much in a relatively short space of time and the high energy in the room was infectious!

Realy looking forward to seeing the results of Andy's photo shoot with Stew who ended up wrapped in the flags and looking bemused and iconic in a stoic Saintly fashion!

"Interpretation is about communication . . .
Interpretation is about telling a story . . .
Interpretation is a vital part of how people experience the places they visit".

Masters, D Scottish Natural heritage website
http://www.snh.org.uk/wwo/Interpretation/default.html

The Traipse

This blog has been set up to archive and share my creative practice and collaborative experiences. As a son of Sheffield with a family trade history in the steel industry, brightfurnace seemed a fitting company name. Born in brightside, as a child I remember with awe the now iconic thumping sound of the ton hammers working through the night, New York wasn't the only city that never slept! The alchemic associations and transformations of the fiery furnace seem to echo the grind and relationship I have with uncertainty and change, a metaphor for the creative process.

Brightfurnace's first project the traipse has been in development with partners imove over the past eight months. What began as an idea for a choreographic investigation based upon the interpretation of tradition, in this case English rapper sword dance (with it's origins around the Tyneside coalface) new strands and developments have been forged through what has been a long period of picking the project up and putting it down again, interspersed with procrastination and vigorous bouts of new energy and refined approach! Key to this process has been the continued support and development of ideas from Tessa and imove which has helped this initial period of defining the project feel a less isolated one and more collaborative.

The traipse will be a walked performance event that has it's roots in trespassing or arriving uninvited within a variety of social spaces and surprising unsuspecting groups of people with our show, like that of the pub, greasy spoon cafe and working mens club (I know there's a few left somewhere?) these dances are designed for small spaces. We'll process along and perform in a number of considered, pre arranged venues leaving room for spontaneity in between and along the daily timeline within five locations over five days in Yorkshire.

The final destination of the traipse, the trespass inn is a fictional fantastical performers club that will host a medley of folksy cum cabaret performance and dance. The idea is to partner up with local folk and cabaret clubs, like Cabaret Boom Boom in Walkley, Sheffield and promote local artists. One theory of the origin of the word traipse is from the french word trespass and so the trespass inn and traipsing are synonymous.

The three strands that form the body of the work are as follows:

• Interpreting Tradition

• The Traipse

• The Trespass Inn